Continuing steps to move to a more battery-powered delivery fleet, the Postal Service announced on February 28 that, “after a competitive search,” it had awarded a contract to Ford Motor Company for 9,250 Ford E-Transit Battery Electric Vehicles. However, the agency conditioned starting delivery of the trucks, planned for December, on the “successful completion of the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement…
Read More
There are many human qualities that can be seen two ways, depending on whether the observer believes them to be positive or negative. For example, someone who perseveres is praised by supporters as determined, courageous, and steadfast, but criticized concurrently by skeptics as dogmatic, obstinate, or stubborn. Persons who show self-confidence in the face of challenges are praised as tenacious,…
Read More
In consecutive filings with the Postal Regulatory Commission on February 10, the Postal Service revised two of its competitive product categories, continuing its ongoing restructuring of package services overall. First-Class Package Service In the first filing (docketed as CP2023-113), the USPS announced it will rename First-Class Package Service as “USPS Ground Advantage,” raise its weight limit to seventy pounds, and…
Read More
In an order issued January 25, the Postal Regulatory Commission gave each side of an ongoing argument a little of what it wanted. Accounting The issue at hand is simple: how the USPS should account for the $59.6 billion in “prefunding” obligations forgiven by the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 enacted last April. The answer to that question would…
Read More
Nearly three years into the reign of Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General, many in the commercial mail production business have conceded that their irrelevance to Postal Service leadership is now nearly total. Accordingly, what they think or need matters virtually not at all at L’Enfant Plaza, and, as a result, we’re all just along for the ride. Where that ride…
Read More
This article was produced by Merry Law, Mailers Hub’s expert consultant on international mail. Merry may be reached at [email protected] The electronic world has been unkind to at least one post, as demonstrated earlier this month. Ransomware Royal Mail, the UK’s designated postal operator, was hit with a ransomware attack on January 10 or 11, stopping their ability to send…
Read More
In its 2022 Post-Election Analysis, a document released January 9, the Postal Service reported the service it claimed to have provided “ballots [sent] from voters to local boards of elections” between September 6 and December 6, 2022.” Of the 54.4 million ballots it identified over the period, it claimed to have delivered 98.96% within three days, 99.82% within five days,…
Read More
Postal Service accounting is, to say the least, complex. Not only does it have to measure “institutional” costs – like maintaining the USPS Headquarters building – and “attributable” costs – like the manual distribution of Periodicals flats – but it also has to divide those costs between the market dominant products and competitive products. A core statutory requirement is that…
Read More
As 2022 came to a close, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was interviewed by Government Executive to get his opinions about progress in implementing his 10-year Plan. For DeJoy, 2023 is the “Year of Implementation” when many of the operational changes he’s been planning finally are put in place and, presumably, begin to deliver the efficiencies and cost savings that he…
Read More
In the closing days of 2022, the legal wrangling continued between the Postal Service and a group of industry associations about how to account for the billions of forgiven USPS debt resulting from last April’s Postal Service Reform Act of 2022. Earlier As has been previously reported, the debate started when the Postal Service sent a letter to the Postal…
Read More